Official and Informal Insights and Information from Avnet

Thank you for visiting the Soft Pitch blog. On March 9, 2015, we announced that we’d be posting to a new home, Avnet Voices. Please visit us there for the latest news from Avnet, Inc. and be sure to subscribe for email updates when new posts are added.

We profiled some incredible Avnet employees such as Julie Jones, vice president of enterprise strategic planning and Karen Cirillo, sales and marketing representative and T.J. Whey, project manager.

The Soft Pitch blog has served us well, but now it’s time to usher in a new blog with fresh voices and a broader scope to match the ever-increasing global scope of Avnet itself. Avnet Voices is a new blog that will feature stories from Avnet’s thought-leaders from around the globe. We’ll focus on every aspect of Avnet from supply chain solutions to charitable giving, our commitment to the environment to how we’re helping bring groundbreaking technologies that are poised to change our everyday lives. I’ll also be a regular contributor to Avnet Voices, lending my own insight into brand, marketing and communications. Be sure to subscribe to the latest posts, here.

On a personal note, I’d like to thank you for reading our posts and sharing our journey these past seven years. I look forward to continuing our discussions on Avnet Voices.

In today’s interconnected world, Avnet has the opportunity to play a critical role in every aspect of technology. Our corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities reflect our ongoing commitment to helping technology make the world a better place to live, work and play. For more than 90 years, we have kept our promises to our customers through our strong values, entrepreneurial spirit and responsible culture. As a public company, we believe that being socially and environmentally responsible is good for our stakeholders, our planet and is an essential component to the long-term sustainability of our business. Read the 2014 Avnet CSR Report (PDF).

About the Avnet CSR Report

Avnet’s inaugural CSR Report showcases the collective impact of our commitment to the supply chain and economy, the environment, our people and our communities. In this report we share our vision for social stewardship and sustainability reporting on the following areas:

Corporate Accountability

Read how our structure and governance principles help guide ethical business decisions and maintain compliance on a global scale.

We believe that one of our most strategic advantages is our people. Read how we ensure our employees are engaged in their work, find new ways to grow in their careers and are rewarded for their contributions.

Involvement in the Community

Learn how we make an impact on our communities with hands-on volunteerism and financial giving programs that focus on technology education, promoting opportunities for underserved groups and advocating for energy conservation.

This year was an incredible year for technology. As the holidays rapidly approach, Avnet’s employees from around the world weighed in on their holiday tech wishes this year. With responses that range from retro to futuristic, there’s no denying our teams’ tech enthusiasm. Take note all you last-minute shoppers!

Rick Hamada, CEO“Any app or gadget that could improve my golf game might be of interest.”

Darren Adams, vice president and general manager, Avnet Technology Solutions, Australia/NZ
“I like those digital picture frames. If someone could find a battery/portable one of those that I could take on tour with me when I travel that would be fantastic! I just bought a Sonos sound system and think that’s a very cool way to have the whole family listen to music of their choice.”

Jennifer Daake, vice president, Global HR Operations
“I actually received my holiday technology gift early – an upgrade of my phone from iPhone 4s to a 6! I wanted a larger screen because so many activities, both personal and professional, are now mobile.”

Mike McCoy, vice president, assistant general council
“As I have been good this year, I am hoping to get the GoPro Hero 4 with the Dive Bundle. I recently received my SCUBA license and I hope to go diving this spring. I would love to be able to record my dive and show my kids what I was able to do. Since I am not paying for it, I also would not complain if I received the Samsung 75-inch 4K TV so that I can watch my zombie shows and University of Arizona basketball in UltraHD. I behaved better this year so I am hoping Santa comes through!”

Sean Valcamp, director enterprise architecture and security services, Avnet Global Information Solutions
“This year I am hoping Santa brings the Internet of Things to my stocking. By this I mean sensors and specifically the 3Bays GSA PRO golf swing analyzer. This provides immediate feedback about my golf swing to my smartphone. Now if there was only a sensor that could fix my swing!”

Alan Chui, regional president, Avnet Electronics Marketing, Asia“This year Google Glass has taken the top spot on my Holiday Tech Wish List. Although the new gadget is being peppered with many questions from technology experts and its huge base of Google fans, I am drawn by how intuitive the cool gadget is. I like the camera feature where I could take hands-free photos by using my voice to instruct Google Glass to capture images and then upload them on social media sites. As I travel a lot, the intuitive software also allows me to receive up-to-date information on flights, weather, traffic conditions, etc. And all this information just appears in the right corner of my vision!”

Rusty Murdaugh, vice president, financial planning and analysis
“I am hoping to receive a drone this year (or maybe next year). I think this technology is pretty cool and I would like to try this method of flying versus getting up in the air myself behind the controls.“

Steve Phillips, chief information officer
“This is a relatively low-tech retro holiday gift on my 2015 Holiday Gift wish! An Atari flashback with five classic games pre-loaded – Space Invaders®, Asteroids®, Battlezone®, Centipede®, Missile Command® and more. Looking at the box cover, I’m reminded of how those 80’s graphic designers seemed to be disconnected from the actual graphics capabilities of these early gaming consoles! Anyway, hopefully, if my children have listened to my copious hints, I’ll be playing Space Invaders with them over the holidays.”

A lot has changed since 1995, the year that Avnet launched its first website, www.avnet.com. At the time, it was one of only 23,500 websites in existence. Today, there are more than one billion websites online and that number continues to grow. Not only has the volume of websites increased, but the way we access the Web has changed dramatically. Last year, Cisco predicted that the number of mobile-connected devices would exceed the world’s population by 2014. Cisco went on to predict that by 2018, over half of all devices connected to the mobile network will be “smart” devices and the vast majority of mobile data traffic (96 percent) will originate from these smart devices. In 1995, we definitely didn’t think anything like this was possible.

Avnet.com homepage in 1995.

Recently, we introduced a fresh, updated Avnet.com. Our new mobile-friendly site, allows visitors to get a better sense of what we do, who we help and who we are – on any device they choose. Throughout the years, Avnet has continuously made updates to our website as technology and needs have changed, but this has been a complete overhaul in look, feel and functionality. And we’ve done it all for you. Our site is designed to provide you with the information you seek quickly, as well as offering in-depth information about customers we’ve helped, unique services we offer and even career opportunities.

The newly launched homepage of Avnet.com.

As we approach our 20th year online, we hope that you’ll take a moment and visit the new Avnet.com. Tell us what you think on social media using the hashtag #AvnetWeb.